Antalya film festival canceled over film about 2016 purges

3 mins

From our correspondent in Ankara,

The film that divides so much is a documentary called Decree (“Kanun Hükmü” in Turkish), by Nejla Demirci, which tells both a very personal story for this director, but also and above all a story of Turkey in recent years. The film tells the story of the struggle of two civil servants – a doctor and a schoolteacher, respectively the sister of Nejla Demirci and one of her friends – who were dismissed by presidential decree after the failed coup d’état of July 2016.

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Dismissed means dismissed, deprived of all their social rights, deprived of a passport and often prevented, in fact, from finding a job, with no other explanation than suspicion of “links” with terrorism. This is what happened to more than 125,000 Turkish civil servants in the years of state of emergency following the failed coup. Only a handful of them (18,000) were able to return to their jobs.

A documentary accused of propaganda of terrorism

Nejla Demirci says that it took her years to make this film, because she had to fight against filming bans, police custody, intimidation from police officers and other officials who accused her of making there ” terrorist propaganda “. She ended up going to the Constitutional Court, which ruled in her favor. Then came the news of his selection at the Antalya festival.

But on September 22, the organizers gave up presenting the documentary, on the pretext that proceedings were underway against one of the two protagonists and that this could influence the justice system. In reaction, the members of the jury and the producers and screenwriters selected this year decided to no longer participate in the festival, out of solidarity.

Initially, this pushed the organizers to reconsider their decision, because in reality, no legal proceedings are underway. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, one of the main sponsors of the event, immediately decided to withdraw from the festival, and the Ministry of Sports to no longer lend the hall which was to host the event.

On September 28, the festival director canceled the selection of the documentary a second time, stating that “ threat » and announcing that an investigation had been opened against him. In the process, the Antalya town hall – a member of the opposition – indicated that it had to resolve to cancel the festival.

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Freedom of expression under attack

The Ministry of Culture accuses the film “ to use the power of art to propagandize the terrorist organization Fetö “. Feto (Fethullahist terror organization) is the acronym attributed to the networks of preacher Fethullah Gülen, the designated sponsor of the aborted putsch of 2016. The massive purges which followed this failed putsch are an extremely sensitive subject in Turkey. The sacked civil servants – who are sometimes opponents without any connection to the networks of the preacher Gülen – are treated by the authorities as traitors.

Defending them, or simply telling their story, is seen as a form of support for terrorism and the coup. Nejla Demirci’s documentary goes against the official discourse, since it presents these two officials as victims. Moreover, his doctor sister ended up getting her job back. More broadly, the fate reserved for this documentary illustrates the attacks on freedoms in Turkey, in this case freedom of expression and artistic freedom.

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